New twist as magistrate hearing Oscar Sudi’s ‘forged academic certificates’ case transferred
The fate of a seven-year old academic forgery case against a two-term MP now lies with Chief Justice Martha Koome.
The case against Kapsaret MP Oscar Sudi suffered a major setback following the transfer of trial magistrate Felix Kombo.
The case will now be placed before Ms Koome to decide on whether or not to permit the outgoing magistrate to conclude it.
Sudi’s lawyers say they will request the CJ to permit the outgoing magistrate to conclude the case.
Consequently, Defence lawyer Thomas Rutto pleaded with Milimani Anti-Corruption Chief Magistrate Thomas Nzyoki to accord him time to engage the CJ.
He added that the Prosecution case is at its tail end since the last witnesses, the investigation officer was scheduled for Cross examination before the closure of the state case.
The Defence request to engage the CJ was supported by state prosecutor Joseph Riungu.
Riungu informed Nzyoki the case has been pending in court for long and justice will only be met if Kombo is allowed to conclude the trial.
“It on record the trial magistrate Kombo has informed all parties in this case to expedite the hearing since the case has been pending in court since 2016,” Riungu stated.
Magistrate Nzyoki advised the parties to put their requests in writing.
He further directed the case be mentioned on August 31,2023 to confirm whether the CJ has communicated her decision to allow Kombo to conclude the trial or not.
The new development comes when the last witness, who is the Investigating officer was scheduled to produce all the alleged forged academic certificates used by the accused and be cross-examined by the Defence.
The investigating officer namely Derrick Kaisha from the Ethics and Anti Corruption was however stood down until August 22, 2023 for defence team to cross examine him.
In his testimony on July 21,2023, Kaisha told court Sudi forged his academic certificates so he could secure nomination to vie for the parliamentary seat in the 2013 General Election.
Kaisha presented to the court testimonials obtained from various educational institutions to support the charges that MP SUdi actually forged KCSE and Diploma certificates from Kenya Institute Management (KIM) in business Management when he actually did not attend those classes.
The officer further revealed that Sudi did not sit for his KCSE exam at Highway Secondary nor did he study at KIM where he claims to have attained a Diploma in Business Management.
Sudi faces several charges of forgery of his academic papers that he presented at IEBC for clearance to vie for the parliamentary seat.
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